Gun Ownership

This is a discussion on Gun Ownership within the Forum News, Feedback, Problems & Comments forums, part of the DefensiveCarry.com Forum Office category; I am looking for information on gun ownership in america. How many new buyers, repeat buyers, ext... Can anyone point me in the right direction ...

Easy. Google "gun ownership in America" and you'll get your first 100 answers.

Various organizations such as the NRA, GOA, and National Shooting Sports Foundation also have various statistics available. So do the "anti" groups such as the Violence Policy Center and the Brady Campaign. The gross numbers won't lie, but the various groups will filter, sort and spin the numbers to prove their various points.

No one knows exactly how many firearms are in private hands in this country, because registration is generally not a requirement, and no one really cared, it seems, until after JFK was shot and the modern gun control efforts got under way. One for every two Americans is probably a conservative estimate. New buyers and repeat buyers will be hard to discern, but industry sales information are generally available for the last 10 years or more (NSSF). Some fraction of gun purchases are also tallied by the Feds with the NIC system (which has its own web site), but recognize that not all retail gun sales require the instant check - e.g., I have an AZ CCW so NIC doesn't get a call when I buy a gun at a store.

Just reserve some healthy skepticism when you get the numbers you seek, and consider who the source is.

Gun ownership as a general matter, without concern and inquiry into type, is I think a futile piece of research.

On this forum probably everyone owns a handgun or several handguns. But legal ownership of handguns (or rather possession--even within ones home) is something that varies widely throughout the nation. You really need state by state
data.

There are other categories of guns: rifles and shotguns, and also subtypes of these for different purpose. And then, there are many people who own a gun they inherited, or a gun they purchased for a specific hunting trip decades earlier, but never
use it; or it is inoperable.

Finally, there is a huge amount of illegal gun possession in this country, and considerable traffic in stolen guns.

I think most anyone trying to estimate gun ownership (or gun possession) in the US is going after an unattainable number and even the guestimates will be off.

If the Union is once severed, the line of separation will grow wider and wider, and the controversies which are now debated and settled in the halls of legislation will then be tried in fields of battle and determined by the sword.
Andrew Jackson

Ask ABC, NBC, or CBS. I'll bet they did the FOI on all of it and may know more than the government that's supposed to keep the statistics. They do seem to have their own statistics whenever the need arises don't they? Anybody ever question their statistics or take them to court over it?